


He Just Stares At The World

by ashilrak



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Extremis Tony Stark, F/M, Not Canon Compliant, Technopathy, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, Tony Stark Low-Key Becomes A Villain, Tony Stark-centric, but with good intentions, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:55:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24398383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashilrak/pseuds/ashilrak
Summary: When Tony returned from Afghanistan, JARVIS created a folder full of possible scenarios if Tony became a villain.Not a single one factored in a teammate's betrayal, let alone an unexpected side-effect of mixing Extremis and magic.Tony Stark knew what was out there. He had seen humanity at its worse. And you know what? He was going to save the world, no matter the cost.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 97
Kudos: 724
Collections: A Collection of Beloved Inserts





	1. Chapter 1

It hurt like a son of a bitch.

Tony knew pain. He was good at pain. Good at giving it, good at taking it. He knew the ins and outs. Had felt battery acid burn his veins, had felt the sharp betrayal of a man he had looked up to for so long. Just to name a few. Pain was familiar. 

But this? Just because it was familiar didn’t make it better. He was on the verge of something. Something bad. He expected the cold air to sting, but this was something different. Something harsher. The drag of sandpaper on an open wound. 

The suit was supposed to help him. But even Tony couldn’t make something out of nothing. And that’s what the suit was. Ripped apart and bent in and cutting into and crushing his chest.

He did this. He didn’t need to go after the Winter Soldier like that. Maybe Steve wouldn’t have…

That’s what hurt most of all. Captain America did this to him. The shield that his father made was his downfall.

Tony guessed he always had expected that of dear old dad.

The thing about breathing was that it’s mostly an involuntary function. Sure, Tony could hold his breath, but his body would eventually overcome that. Would force him to suck in precious oxygen. He didn’t know if it hurt more to breath or not to at this point. Tony guessed it didn’t matter.

It’d be over with soon enough.

Death wasn’t supposed to be comforting. Space had always haunted him. 

But at least the endless vast of nothing was familiar. 

He was supposed to be better than this.

He’d always known he wasn’t.

\---

The thing is, Tony has had his suit die before. He’s put in layer after layer of protocols, some for if it ran out of juice, others for it it went offline. Even more for if someone else got their hands on it.

He’d spent hours and hours pouring over code and planning for any possible instance. 

Sure, he’d never factored in Captain America trying to kill him before, but sometimes the details weren’t as important.

What was important was this:

  1. The Mark XLVI had sustained serious damage
  2. The Mark XLVI had been cut off from its main power supply
  3. The Mark XLVI had been cut off from its auxiliary power supplies
  4. Tony was injured
  5. Tony was non-responsive



Damage to the suit was expected. 

Being cut off from the power supply was an issue.

Tony Stark being non-responsive in the middle of Siberia activated eighteen different protocols.

\---

Pepper Potts’ main strength was not her poker face or her ability to walk in stilettos all day. No. Rather, it was her ability to act. Pepper Potts didn’t freeze. She might panic, she might be absolutely terrified and uncomfortable, but she did not freeze.

Pepper Potts was very good at doing. Years working as Tony Stark’s PA before Afghanistan had made her unflappable. There were trials by fire and then there was trying to make Tony Stark drink water after three days in Vegas.

So, when Pepper Potts’ tablet rang for the third time in a row during a meeting, when it had the audacity to actually ring when she had it set on silent, Pepper Potts glanced down at the device to see twelve missed messages and three missed calls from FRIDAY. 

FRIDAY didn’t call her. Even JARVIS hadn’t called her. They might have been the one doing the calling, but it was always Tony. 

Something was wrong. Wrong in the way that meant the merger she was currently discussing wasn’t worth a grain of salt if she didn’t figure out what the hell was happening.

Pepper cleared her throat, stopping the lawyer mid-sentence.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, gentlemen,” she said, voice carefully leveled. “But something has come up that I must take care of immediately.”

The five men were shocked, eyes wide and mouths unmoving. 

Pepper stood up, tablet in hand. The messages from FRIDAY were front and center on her screen. 

“Ms. Potts,” the lawyer said. “I understand that there might be an emergency, but this meeting has been planned for months.”

“I understand that,” Pepper replied in a tone that allowed no argument. “But, this is both a private emergency and something that could affect the company.” They all knew Tony was Iron Man. They could figure it out. “As such, I am sorry to say that we will need to reschedule. I’ll have my PA find a time.”

Her PA was very, very good. A woman after her own heart, truly. 

“Thank you, gentlemen.”

She turned on her heel and strode out of the room. Every step toward the door had her heart pounding even faster in her chest. 

As soon as the door shut behind her, she pulled an earpiece out of her bag. 

“FRIDAY, what’s happening?” 

FRIDAY’s familiar -- never as familiar as JARVIS -- lilt filled her ear. “Boss and the Mark XLVI are unresponsive.”

Pepper swallowed down the fear. “Unresponsive as in no signal or unresponsive as in-”

“-unresponsive as in Dr. Strange has been dispatched to his last known location and Dr. Cho has been summoned to the med-bay.”

Dr. Stephen Strange was a man Pepper had heard of. She remembered him from various galas, had offered a meaningless smile to the man’s empty flirtations. He had always reminded her of a colder Tony. More like how he described Howard, than anything else.

She hadn’t heard his name in years. “What does Dr. Strange have to do with anything?”

“Boss discovered that the role he occupies now is very different,” FRIDAY said. “He recognized it could be useful. Contacting Dr. Strange was written in a protocol for when instantaneous travel over a long distance was needed.”

Pepper nodded. Why? She didn’t know. “Did Dr. Strange know this?”

“No.” 

FRIDAY’s answer was straight and to the point. It was exactly like something Tony would do. And it looked like the rest of the day, and realistically the rest of her life, hinged on kindness from a man known for his arrogance. 

Pepper let out a breath and squeezed the tablet to her chest tighter. She wished she still had extremis so she could blow something up. 

Wait. 

“FRIDAY,” she started, hesitantly. “Have any protocols related to extremis been initiated?”

She didn’t want them to. That was the last thing she wanted. Extremis meant Tony was practically dead. He had fixed it, of course he did. But it had been a last ditch effort. It wasn’t something he wanted. Tony had always been so painfully human, and he wanted to keep it that way. 

But Tony was realistic. He had never said as such, but Pepper knew him well. He had extremis tucked away somewhere. Had thought about it and prepped it as a doomsday scenario. 

“Yes, Ms. Potts,” FRIDAY answered, voice as resigned as it could be. “Your approval is needed for the protocols, as well as your assistance in carrying them out. These are some of the few that are not automated.”

Oh. Tony was scared. 

Tony trusted his AIs more than he had any right to. He trusted them more than he trusted himself sometimes. 

But he didn’t trust them with this. Pepper thought she knew why.

Any AI Tony made would have done it without any hesitation -- Tony had put more humanity into his AIs than most people found in themselves, they were capable of hesitation. But not this. The AIs loved Tony. They would do anything within their power to protect him. Extremis would increase his chances of survival, so Extremis would be used.

The AIs wouldn’t say no, couldn’t say no. Not when it came to Tony.

Pepper could. He trusted her with this. Tony trusted her to make the right call.

“Yes,” she said. “Use Extremis.”

If this was as bad as all the signs pointed to it being, she wasn’t taking any risks.

“Alright FRIDAY, what do I need to do?”

\---

It turned out that Pepper just needed to go to Tony’s lab and use her code to give Dr. Cho access to extremis.

Three hours later, doors to the compound med-bay opened upon her approach. 

She had known walking in that it wouldn’t be pretty, but seeing it was still worse.

Helen Cho was standing with furrowed brows as she looked between a holographic screen and the cradle. A man wearing some sort of blue tunic stood by her side, eyes squinting as they read whatever the screen said. 

It took a moment for Pepper to recognize Stephen Strange. She probably wouldn’t have if she hadn’t known there was a possibility he was playing some role in this. 

Helen looked up and her face immediately softened. “Pepper,” she said. “I was wondering when you’d get here.”

Pepper sighed. “I would have been here faster, but I was at the tower.”

Helen nodded. 

“How is he?” Pepper asked, taking a step closer. She couldn’t really see into the cradle. There was an orange glow coming from inside of it, but that could have been its normal operations or the extremis or anything for all she knew. “I couldn’t bring myself to look at FRIDAY’s report when she sent it.”

It was pages and pages long. Usually, Tony’s injury reports were a short paragraph, a couple bruises, a cut here or there. The suit took most of the damage. If this was Tony, Pepper never wanted to see the Mark XLVI again in her life.

Helen let out a shaky breath. “I’m not going to lie,” she said. “It was bad. Really, really bad. If he hadn’t gotten here when he did, I don’t think he would have made it.”

Pepper bit her lip.

“Be grateful that the arc reactor no longer serves the same function it once did,” Helen said, seriously. “It was obliterated. If it was used to control anything more than the suit there’d be absolutely no chance of saving him.”

Pepper sat down, nearly falling into the seat. “Oh.”

Helen nodded. 

“What happened?” Pepper asked, looking between her and Dr. Strange.

“I can answer that better, I think,” Dr. Strange said, his eyes not leaving the screen. “We won’t know until Stark wakes up unless there’s footage somewhere, but, certain conclusions can be drawn.”

Pepper stiffened. She did not like that tone. “What conclusions?”

“He was lying in an abandoned Bunker in Siberia,” Dr. Strange said.

Siberia? What the hell was he doing in Siberia? “And?”

“The blow that hit the arc reactor left a distinct mark,” Strange said, gaze meeting hers for the first time. Oh, she was not going to like what he said next. “It had been made by what appears to be a disc with a large amount of force behind it.”

He couldn’t mean…

“And lying by Stark’s side was a very familiar shield.”

Oh, he did mean.

Pepper was speechless, her mouth hanging open as she stared at the cradle. 

\---

Tony came to awareness slowly. 

He was breathing easier than he had in years. That was the first thing he noticed.

The second thing he noticed were the voices muttering. Well, at least that meant he wasn’t dead. Probably. Maybe.

“He should be waking up soon,” a vaguely familiar voice said. “Everything is reading as normal.”

Tony opened his eyes and a field of white flooded his vision. Ah yes, the ceiling in all of its glory.

“Tony!” Someone squeezed his hand tightly. “You’re awake! How are you feeling?”

He smiled at the sound of Pepper’s voice and turned to look at her. “Now, don’t look so surprised. It takes a lot to kill me, you know.”

A familiar exasperated look spread across Pepper’s face. Jackpot. 

Helen Cho stepped forward. “Mr. Stark,” she said, a hint of a grin tugging at the corner of her lip. “Glad to see you’re the same as ever.”

Tony put on his media smile. “You know me.”

Cho’s face became serious. “I’m going to run a few tests, and then we can determine what the next steps will be.” She looked over to the holographic screen. “Your treatment was...experimental.”

He did his best to hold down the rising panic. It was always experimental. Experimental didn’t mean bad. Experimental had saved his life more than once. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” Pepper started. She cleared her throat. “FRIDAY initiated several protocols to get you here.” She gave him a pointed look. “The damage to your suit meant we needed to retrieve you.”

Right. That. 

“Which protocols?” 

Protocols could mean anything. He’d written hundreds. Had muttered even more in his late-night ramblings while working on something. FRIDAY recorded them all. 

A new figure floated forward -- literally, floated. “The protocol that had me getting you.”

Tony blinked. “You’re Dr. Strange.”

Dr. Strange nodded. 

That wasn’t good.

Pepper squeezed the hand she was still holding. “I approved Extremis, Tony,” she said. “FRIDAY told me it was the only way.”

Tony swallowed. He had known it was bad. Couldn’t remember all the details. But he knew he hadn’t expected to wake up. 

“I know you didn’t want it,” Pepper continued. She closed her eyes and took in a breath. Her eyes scrunched the way they did when she was getting a migraine, or when she woke up with the sun beaming on her face. “But I couldn’t…” Pepper huffed. “I couldn’t lose you.”

She was right. Extremis had never been something he asked for. A lump formed in the back of his throat. 

He closed his eyes and nodded. He squeezed Pepper’s hand and let out a shaky breath. “You’re right,” he admitted. “I wouldn’t have asked for it.” Tony lifted his head and met Pepper’s gaze. “But I put that protocol in place for a reason.”

Pepper nodded.

“I would have done the same thing,” Tony said. “If it were you.”

He’d move the world for Pepper if he could. He’d find a way to move the world for her.

“I know you’re having a moment,” Strange interrupted. “But I feel like there’s more you need to know.”

Tony frowned and looked over to him. “What?”

“Extremis wasn’t enough,” Strange said. “There’s a reason I’m still here.”

“Oh?” Tony asked, raising a brow. “It wasn’t because you wanted to see my award-winning smile in real life? I was a most eligible bachelor for years, you know.”

Strange sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, looking like he’d rather be anywhere than here. “I needed to give you a…” Strange lifted up a hand and summoned some sort of light orb. “Push.”

Tony blinked. “A push.”

Strange nodded. “A push.”

He could do this. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. 

“What does that mean for me?” He did  _ not _ mean for his voice to come out so broken. Pepper barely held back a wince. “Are there any side-effects?”

Strange shrugged. “We don’t know.”

A moment passed. Tony blinked. Twice.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” He didn’t quite manage to keep the bite out of his tone.

Strange didn’t even flinch. “We’re going to need you to keep us updated on that,” he said. “Dr. Cho and I are going to want to do a few regular check-ups over the next few months to make sure everything’s stable.”

He focused on Pepper. His hand was probably squeezing hers too tightly to be anything near comfortable. He couldn’t help it. It was fine. It had to be fine.

He offered a sharp nod. “Thank you.”

Strange’s brows lifted in surprise. “Thank you?” he asked.

“Yes,” Tony said. “Thank you. Please leave.”

Strange nodded. “You’ll hear from me soon.”

Strange opened a portal and then he was gone.

Tony turned to Pepper. “There’s gotta be a way to stop that from happening in this building.”

“Tony.” Pepper gave him a Look. “If you did that, there’s a very real chance you wouldn’t be alive right now.”

“Right.” Tony cleared his throat and let go of Pepper’s hand to sit up a bit more. “So, what happened?”

“I feel like I should be asking you that.”

Tony shook his head. “No, not to me,” he said. “To Rhodey. The kid.”

Pepper’s face softened. “Rhodey’s recovering from surgery,” she said. “He’s paralyzed, but other than that he’s in perfect health.”

“Other than paralysis?” That was his fault. He was going to have to fix that. Rhodey needed his legs. He didn’t deserve to not have his legs. Tony could easily picture Rhodey brushing it off with some bullshit about how it was all in the line of duty. But it was nothing more than bullshit. 

“Tony…”

“Pepper.” He mentally added make Rhodey new legs to the to-do list. “What about the kid?”

Pepper’s eyes narrowed. “You mean the fifteen year old you dragged into your mess?”

“Yes?” he said, wincing. “Him.”

She sighed. “He’s fine. Wasn’t injured. Happy took him back to his aunt.”

Checking on the kid added to the to-do list. He could handle that. He loved a to-do list.

Tony hated to-do lists.

His shoulders tensed as he asked, “and the others?”

“You mean Captain Rogers and friends?” Pepper questioned.

He gave a sharp nod.

Pepper leaned back in her chair and brought a hand up to twirl a loose piece of hair. She was not happy. Tony pushed down the rising anger. “Wakanda,” she said, tone flat. “They’re in Wakanda. T’Challa brought them in for some reason. Protection? A favor? I don’t know.”

Something seemed wrong about that. T’Challa hated Barnes just as much as he did, last time Tony checked.

“Huh.” 

It’s all he had to say.

“FRIDAY,” he called out, looking toward the ceiling, extending a hand to pull the holoscreen over. “Update me. News, public opinion, what’s trending on twitter, the works.”

No response.

He looked over to Pepper. Pepper, who was guiltily not meeting his gaze.

“What happened to FRIDAY?” he asked, tone giving more away than he wanted. 

This was almost worse than realizing a suit wasn’t responding. A suit could be re-charged. A suit could be fixed. An AI though...a back-up could only do so much. FRIDAY was ever-learning, ever-evolving. It wasn’t the sort of thing that could be saved on a singular server farm somewhere. It was part of the reason he couldn’t get JARVIS back.

Pepper rushed forward and gripped his hand. “FRIDAY’s fine,” she reassured him, words coming out faster than normal. She got it. If there was anyone who might have understood his panic at FRIDAY’s silence, it was Pepper. “It’s...you.”

Him?

“What do you mean?” he asked. He could feel his brows scrunching together. Howard had always yelled at him about how expressive his eyes were. “Pepper?”

Pepper sighed. “We don’t know,” she admitted. “Your brain activity hasn’t fully returned to normal, but it’s...especially abnormal when FRIDAY was active in this room.”

Tony froze. 

“You said everything was fine. Why did Strange and Cho leave if my brain activity isn’t acting normal?” His voice was rising. “Strange was a fucking neurosurgeon Pepper! Why’d you let him just...leave?”

“Because it’s fine!” Pepper said, lips pursed. “Or they think it is. It’s...they think it’s just the extremis. But for whatever reason your brain activity spiked when FRIDAY was speaking when you were recovering.”

Casual. Fine. “Did they say anything about it? Beyond that?”

“Not really,” Pepper shook her head. “I said I wanted to be the one to tell you. It’s going to be a part of the tests that Dr Strange will run over the next couple months.” Her thumb rubbed a comforting pattern over the back of his hand. “My theory is that it’s just Extremis doing what Extremis does. It was supposed to open up new areas of the brain, who’s to say that you fixing it prevented that from happening?”

That...that made sense. 

“Turn FRIDAY back on.” 

He knew she wasn’t off, but...it was the easiest way. 

“Are you sure?” Pepper asked, already reaching for her phone. 

Tony didn’t have to say anything. He just looked at her.

“Yeah, yeah,” Pepper said. She pressed something on her screen. “FRIDAY, you can go active again in this room.”

“Hello BOSS,” his girl’s familiar voice said. “I’m happy to see you back in working order.”

Tony couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across his face. “Me too.”

And then it happened. 

He had no idea was was happening He couldn’t see anything but lines of code. He wasn’t even seeing it. There was nothing to see. Pepper was sitting in front of him, her hand warm in his. But he knew there was code. Somewhere, coming from something. He felt it in a way he had only dreamed of while drunk off his ass in college. He was surrounded by numbers and letters that were meaningless at first glance. At second glance - look, touch, something -- they were gone.

He reached a hand out and grasped nothing. Pepper leaned forward, face scrunched together in a way he knew meant she was worried. The labs on the 20th floor were one degree too warm. The security personnel standing by the main entrance to the lobby were arguing about a shift cover. There was a piece falling out of Pepper’s ponytail. There were 127 people in the lower cafeteria. Numbers and images and sights and sounds flooded his brain. 

He saw himself from above. His eyes were open wide, a bright blue instead of their normal brown. Loki-like.

The CFO had sent five emails to Pepper today. There was a board meeting being rescheduled to fit around his schedule, like he was actually going to go.

Tony couldn’t hear anything but he had a very strong impression of FRIDAY repeatedly apologizing. 

He couldn’t say anything. Maybe his mouth was moving, maybe he was making sounds, but Tony Stark was not hearing himself speak.

He needed it to stop. 

Stop. Stop it. Please, just… let him figure out what the hell was happening. Stop. 

He leaned forward. Not really. He felt like he was leaning forward. The numbers rushed by him faster and faster.

And then it stopped.

His chest was heaving. Pepper’s eyes were wider than he’d ever seen. She had no idea what happened. 

Hell, neither did he.

_ “Boss? Boss? Boss? Boss?” _

He swallowed nothing. Gulping in the empty air. “What?!”

Pepper’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t say anything.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Not you. FRIDAY.”

“FRIDAY didn’t say anything.”

_ “Boss?” _

Tony looked up. “She did! Just now.”

“No I didn’t,” FRIDAY said, voice coming from the speakers in the walls. “Not out loud.”

“What do you mean you didn’t say it out loud?” Tony asked. “I heard you.”

_ “Can you hear me?” _

“Yes!” Tony near-shouted, a hand coming up to cover his face. 

But maybe he didn’t hear it. He just  _ knew _ she said it the same way he  _ knew _ that the receptionist was currently on facebook watching makeup tutorials, because that was apparently something people did on facebook.

“Tony!” Pepper said. “What’s happening?” 

_ “Boss,”  _ Tony felt FRIDAY say. Not heard. He just..knew she was saying something.  _ “I think I can see you.” _

“You better be able to see me.”

_ “No,”  _ Friday said. _ “I see you like I see You and Butterfingers.” _

It was definitely FRIDAY. Not her voice. But...distinct from his own mind. 

What did that even mean? What was he supposed to do about this? He was insane. That’s what happened. Magin and Extremis finally pushed him over the edge.

_ “I think that you’re supposed to get back to work _ ,” FRIDAY offered.  _ “You do have to fix Colonel Rhodes’ legs and visit Mr. Parker, after all. _ ”

Oh. 

“Pepper,” he said suddenly, looking up at her. “I think...I think FRIDAY is in my head.”

“What?”

He gripped her hand tighter. “Like, I mean that...I can hear FRIDAY. In my head. It’s like I’m FRIDAY, but I’m not. I’m still separate.”

“Tony what are you talking about?” Pepper asked, mildly panicked.

“I don’t know!” Tony said. “But, it’s like I just know everything she’s doing!”

“What does that even mean?!”

“I don’t know!” he repeated. “Maybe I like downloaded her into my brain or something!”

_ “FRIDAY,”  _ he thought really hard.  _ “Dim the lights. _ ”

The lights dimmed.

Pepper looked around.

“There!” Tony said, using his free hand to gesture at the lights. “I did that! I told FRIDAY to do that! And it Happened!”

The human brain had more than enough storage for an AI. An AI was a mockery of the human brain. An attempt at creating it. Even his best approximation -- and his were pretty good -- wasn’t even close. But to cycle back and forth like this, to communicate. 

And as the minutes passed by Tony became more and more aware of the fact that he could see all of FRIDAY’s processes. He built her. He knew what to look for. It wasn’t just FRIDAY, but everything. FRIDAY was in the entire tower, even if only a select few knew about her. Everyone else just thought she was the voice in the elevators and such. But it was FRIDAY.

He could, through FRIDAY, control the entire tower. 

Tony’s eyes watered and he felt warmth blossom in his chest.

She was greater than he had ever known. She’d been learning and refining her processes for months. He had built her, had created her and added upgrades and protocols. But he had never been too involved in the caretaking of the tower. He had people for that.

She was beautiful.

He felt a rush of what could only be pride.

_ “Thank you, Boss. I did this all for you.” _

Tony couldn’t help it. He cried.  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Pepper left not long after he wiped the tears off his face, saying something about making sure everyone knew he was okay.

Tony wasn’t paying that much attention. He was much more focused on the fact that he could feel his tech. 

It wasn’t just FRIDAY. He didn’t need to act through mental commands to FRIDAY. He could just make it happen. 

It was like trying to flex a muscle he didn’t know he had. The lights would turn off or the holoscreen would come up every ten tries or so. He was doing something, but he couldn’t tell you what it was. It wasn’t as simple as thinking at it or pointing a finger. A person couldn’t track the impulse that made their finger move. They wanted it to happen and it did. Instantaneously. 

It was those impulses that armor responded to. 

If he could just figure this out…

\---

It took Tony longer than he wanted to admit to realize he wasn’t at the tower. FRIDAY probably controlled the upstate facility even more than she did the tower.

_ “Boss,’ _ FRIDAY said. She seemed to prefer communicating like this, without the translation to speech. He couldn’t say he minded.  _ “The Vision is wondering if you’d be up to his company.” _

Huh. Apparently FRIDAY had mixed feelings about Vision. A sense of discomfort with a hint of jealousy. 

So did he. Vision was the one who hurt Rhodey. But as much as he could never forgive Vision for having JARVIS’ voice, he couldn’t say no to him for the same reason. Maybe Tony shouldn’t have used the voice of Edwin Jarvis in his first AI, maybe then it would have hurt less.

FRIDAY must have taken his thoughts as an affirmative because Vision phased through the door.

“Tony,” Vision said, floating forward. “I heard you were having...difficulties.”

Tony snorted. That was one way to put it.

“I thought I might be able to assist,” Vision said. “It’s not the same, but from what I gather, I might be the one whose situation is closest to your own.”

Words were threatening to burst from the tip of his tongue. Accusations of hurting Rhodey, long-buried complaints of how Vision chose Wanda over him. How he’d been the one to give Vision life, how Vision was supposed to be his. JARVIS was always supposed to be his last defence. Vision wasn’t JARVIS. But sometimes that was hard to accept.

Diving deep into FRIDAY’s code had brought up old memories and emotions he’d kept hidden. He’d never properly mourned JARVIS. 

He pushed it all down, like always. The lights in the room brightened.

“How would you help?” he asked, tone sharper than it needed to be. Tony crossed his arms over his chest. “Walk me through connecting to the internet or something? Believe it or not, I am pretty tech-savvy.”

That was probably his saving grace in all of this. At some point over the night he recognized that FRIDAY talked to him in the form of commands. It was all code. The sort of thing he knew so well he didn’t register it. In theory, he just needed to talk back in commands. 

The interface and language were still up in the air. Those muscle impulses didn’t combine so well with purposeful coding.

Vision inclined his head. “I’d be the last to say you aren’t,” he agreed. “But stil, the offer’s open.”

It was tempting. The opportunity to possibly get a glimpse into what made Vision tick on its own had Tony’s fingers twitching at his sides.

“I was code,” Vision said. “Code that was given a body and a soul. You are a body and a soul given code.”

“I think it’s a bit more complicated than that.”

Vision’s lips twitched. “A bit.”

But it made sense. Enough sense that Tony suddenly had a new idea forming in his brain of how to approach the whole thing. He was still him. Fundamentally, nothing had changed. It didn’t need to be so formulaic. It wasn’t flexing a muscle, exactly, but it wasn’t mentally writing out lines of commands either. It had to be somewhere in the middle. 

The way that he figured out how to fire the repulsors on the suits without any obvious sort of trigger. His AIs had never read his mind. He had done that. He could do this too.

“You think you can help?” he asked, scratching his chin. 

“Yes,” Vision said. “I do.”

Tony said nothing as he stared at Vision. Vision said nothing as he stared back.

A couple moments passed just like that. In silence. 

“Fine,” Tony said. “Do you worst.”

A look crossed Vision’s face. On anyone else, Tony would have called it weird. Vision didn’t have any look that didn’t have some element of oddity. Still weird. Extra weird.

Vision sat in a nearby chair, his palms resting flat on his thighs. He always looked odd when he sat, like he wasn’t quite sure what he was doing. He held himself too carefully. 

Tony pulled a chair over and sat down, slouching a bit more than he would have otherwise. He tapped his fingers on the armrest, tilted his head as he stared at Vision. In the back of his mind, he was aware of FRIDAY paying close attention to him. Of cameras being aimed in his direction and defenses being prepped.

They weren’t needed. But something within Tony still relaxed. His baby girl had his back.

Vision leaned forward, posture still unnervingly straight. “Tony,” he said. “I want you to try to connect to me, the same way you have with FRIDAY.”

Tony blinked. “Huh?” 

He hadn’t connected with FRIDAY. He’d just, explored her code. He’d sensed her. 

Vision said nothing. Just waited.

Tony straightened in his chair. He’d never been one to back down from a challenge. 

Vision’s eyes had always been strange. They weren’t dead and unfeeling, but there had always been something about them that screamed other. An oddly human blue shade that seemed so out of place. It had always made Tony imagine a person inside of Vision, screaming to get out. 

They were Edwin Jarvis’ eyes.

The same color, almost the exact same shape. The face wasn’t the same. The stance wasn’t the same. But those were almost the exact same eyes that Tony had looked up into every time he’d been put to bed as a child, the same eyes he searched out when he got hurt.

He felt something in him break open.

And then he lurched. Maybe he was yanked. It was the mental equivalent of free fall. It was black and stars and life and numbers. Something breathing out life that he couldn’t touch. Images and memories flew past, almost too fast to see.

Eyes blinking open to find the Avengers staring at him, tension thick in the air. The pain of Wanda’s betrayal. Feelings he couldn’t process. A deep-seated affection when Tony came into view, something similar for Pepper. An endless curiosity. The scratchy-soft feel of a sweater. 

Emotion surrounded Tony, unnerving because it didn’t belong to him, all directed at him.

Vision wasn’t JARVIS. JARVIS wasn’t hidden somewhere inside of Vision, even as much as Edwin Jarvis’ eyes stared out of Vision’s face. They were different, separate beings.

But underneath all of the life that the soul stone had given Vision lay a deep-seated loyalty to Tony. Vision’s internal conflict surrounding it. It wasn’t his, but it was undeniably a part of him.

Tony blinked and whatever sort of connection they had formed vanished.

He was speechless, even as he felt something settle into place in the back of his head. 

“Tony?” Vision asked, eyes furrowed in concern. “Are you alright?”

Tony nodded. 

A moment passed. Vision seemed to be contemplating something.

“Sir,” Vision said. Tony flinched. He couldn’t help it. Vision’s gaze held steady. “I...I want to let you know that even though I’m not JARVIS - and I never will be - his affection for you did...carry over. He would want you to move on and be okay.”

He blinked against the tears forming in his eyes. He couldn’t cry over an AI again. Not so soon. He was supposed to be better than this. Stark men were made of iron.

But he’d never been very good at that, had he.

Vision leaned forward and grabbed his hand. “I hope I was able to help in some way.”

And then he was gone.

_ “Boss,” _ FRIDAY said.  _ “Are you alright?” _

Oh.

Whatever Vision had done while Tony was in his head had opened  _ something _ . He wasn’t just aware of everything FRIDAY was, he  _ was _ everything that FRIDAY was.

Well, that changed things.

\---

He was lying alone in the bed. Pepper was in the city dealing with the aftermath of the accords and keeping SI on track.

The tech thing was new. Last time something this new had shown up in his life he ended up killing his godfather. New things meant change. But this could be a good change. In a way, he’d always thought of his genius as his super power. It was his genius that had given him the suit, after all. What had pushed him. Maybe this wasn’t so different.

He flicked a hand to pull up a holoscreen and turn the lights up. 

“FRI,” he said. The habit of speaking aloud was going to be hard to break. “Updates. Accords, news, Underoos, etc.”

In the next moment he knew that Pepper and Rhodey were within five feet of one another in a conference call with Ross and a number of other people who made a habit of sticking their nose in other peoples’ business. Happy was sleeping in his apartment in Manhattan. The kid’s suit was currently offline in a bedroom closet in Queens.

_ “Mrs. Potts wanted me to make sure you took it easy, Boss,” _ Friday said. 

Tony was impressed at the amount of sass the AI managed to put into the words. He really was a genius, what about that. “We both know that’s not gonna happen, FRI.”

He got the impression of a sigh. Incredible.

The holoscreen went back to whence it came and Tony settled back further into the pillows. “Play the voicemail Happy forwarded.”

It was from the kid. He had known the moment Happy sent it. Was this what it was like to be Pepper?

“Hi Mr. Happy!” The kid’s bright voice rang out. “It’s me again, Peter Parker. I know I’ve already called you today but I just saw the news and I wanted to make sure Mr. Stark was okay. Not that I expect an answer but at least this way he knows I asked? Not that it matters, because he has a lot of people that care about him, ‘cause he’s Mr. Stark.” Peter seemed to take a breath before he started speaking again, this time the words coming out a lot quieter. “I don’t know what happened, but I just want to make sure he’s okay. He’s already saved the world, we need to make sure he stays in it. Anyway, I hope-”

And then it cut off. The fact that the kid had managed to shove so many words in there was impressive. He’d just met the kid and already his heart was doing that thing in his chest. Was this what getting old was? If it was, he didn’t want it.

The kid just thought too much of him. Plain old hero worship. He’d hardly saved the world, after all. Just New York. 

New York. 

Even now, he couldn’t get past the flashes of what he saw. It haunted him every time he closed his eyes. He’d tried to do  _ something  _ about it. A suit of armor around the world.

Fat lot of good that did him. Got him nearly killed. And now he could talk to his tech. Like a fucked up sci-fi version of Dr. Doolittle.

\---

Tony was pouring himself a cup of coffee in the penthouse kitchen when the sound of heels clicking signaled Pepper’s arrival, Rhodey pushing himself along behind her. 

He raised his mug in greeting, eyes focused on Rhodey’s legs. 

He did that. That was  _ his  _ fault. And he was going to fix it. He’d figure something out. Not prosthetics, since he still had legs. But something he could wear, preferably close to the body so he could still wear clothes on top of it. Maybe include thrusters in the base. If he brought in some nanites…

_ “Added to the folder, Boss,” _ Friday chimed in. 

Tony blinked in surprise. Huh.

“You alright, Tones?” Rhodey asked.

Tony’s eyes narrowed. “I feel like it should be me asking you that, honeybear.”

Rhodey just shrugged. “It’s part of the job,” he said, eyes staring straight into his soul. “I knew what I signed up for.”

“I’m going to fix it.”

Pepper sighed. “You can’t fix everything Tony.” She stepped forward and took a seat on one of the bar stools. “You can get pretty close, but even you can’t reverse paralysis.”

He said nothing and took a sip of his coffee.

“We’ve been talking with Ross,” Pepper said, clasping her hands together on top of the counter. “He’s not happy.”

Rhodey snorted. “That’s an understatement.”

“Is Ross ever happy?”

“Tony…” That was Pepper’s warning tone. 

“Lay it on me,” he said. “What’s going on? What are we responsible for? What’s the status of everyone? So on and so forth.”

He had a pretty good idea thanks to his brand new internal internet connection that Vision had made him more fully aware of, but Pep had a way of explaining things. 

“We’ve been telling everyone that you were injured, but haven’t released any more details-”

“Good,” Tony interrupted. “Keep it that way.”

“Ross wants to talk to you himself, unsurprisingly,” Rhodey said. “He wants to talk about damages and international reactions given the damage was done on foreign lands by American citizens.”

“We’ll do what we always do,” Tony nodded toward Pepper. “Save the world, cut the checks, handle the fallout, and deal with the resulting negative public opinion. Rinse and repeat.”

He took another sip of his coffee. He wasn’t even tasting it at this point. But he needed something to do with his hands. Considering that he’d accidentally started a video call with Pepper while washing his hair that morning because he’d idly wished she could join him in the shower, he didn’t want to get too twitchy.

“Someone asked me why I pay our PR department so well the other day, you know,” Pepper said.

“That’s because we only hire the best, obviously.”

“Yeah,” Rhodey said, grinning. “Because only the most skilled can handle your bullshit.”

And that’s how the rest of the conversation went, delivering news that had Tony itching to run away and  _ do something _ followed up by a quip or a quick run down memory lane. That such a heavy conversation could be so relaxed said a lot about their shared experiences.

“Tony,” Pepper said. “As your CEO, I have to accept that the perception of Stark Industries has a lot to do with the perception of you. As such, I know that the amount we spend on that perception is necessary. I’m even grateful you take so much out of your personal accounts to pay for damages wrought by yourself and the Avengers.”

He frowned. “I sense a but coming.”

“But,” Pepper continued, giving him a sharp look. “As your friend and your girlfriend, I personally think you don’t owe the world shit.”

Only Pepper could say shit and make it sound elegant. That’s part of why he loved her so much.

“Marry me,” he said. 

Pepper grinned, but then turned serious and said, “people know that this was a result of some sort of split among the avengers. They don’t know the details, but they know there’s no longer a united front. At some point, you need to separate yourself from the rest of them. She pulled out her tablet. “And financially? Now would be a good time to do so. The entire world is watching, and if you start taking responsibility, they’re going to start making demands.”

“The world is watching?” 

“Yes, Tony,” Pepper said. “The Sokovia Accords are a global agreement. How we handle this instance is going to set a precedent. We owe the world an answer.”

He pointed a finger. “You just said I don’t owe the world shit.”

“You, Anthony Edward Stark, don’t. But,” she continued. “They still expect something from Iron Man.”

Tony hummed and took another sip of coffee. “Is that so?”

Rhodey’s eyes narrowed. 

He turned to look at Rhodey with a wide smile. “So boobear, what about this: how about we take over the world?”

Rhodey barely reacted. “You’re kidding, right?” he said, deadpan. “This is a joke.”

“I’m seconding Rhodey on this one,” Pepper said. “You can’t be serious.”

Tony was serious.

He turned to Pepper and set his mug down. “Okay, but Pepper-”

“No buts, Tony!” Pepper said, eyes widening. “You can’t actually mean this.”

The fact that they were taking him seriously enough to start to argue said they thought it was possible.

_ “There’s about a 86% chance of you successfully controlling the media outlets and public perception enough to be considered ‘taking over the world,’”  _ Friday chimed in.  _ “There’s a 14% chance of a successful global dictatorship.” _

Tony straightened. “That’s...higher than expected, honestly.”

Pepper and Rhodey both turned to him. “What?”

“Well,” he said with a shrug. “Nothing you need to worry about unless I can convince you.”

Pepper’s eyes narrowed.

He took that as permission to speak.

“Okay, so look at it this way,” Tony started. “There’s still something coming Pepper. The aliens I saw in New York haven’t gone away because I got hurt. Obviously, the Avengers can’t work as a team. SHIELD doesn’t exist anymore. The world wants some accountability.” He slammed his hands onto the counter. “The only way we’re going to be able to actually save the world in a way the world deems acceptable is if we change the accords. This weird tech thing I can do, we can use this.” Tech was everywhere and controlled near everything. “We have satellites…”

He had all the records on the global satellites put into a folder. Stark Industries could acquire a cellular carrier somehow...get a legitimate cover for putting satellites out…

While Tony was mentally sorting through the schematics available through SHIELD’s infodump, Pepper and Tony were looking at each other with a strange combination of fond exasperation and fear.

“So,” Pepper started, voice carefully measured. “You mean take over the world in a behind-the-scenes sort of way with a dash of an iron legion do-over? Not invent doom bots that actually work sort of way?”

Tony pointed a finger at her. “Yes, exactly.” 

“And how are you going to do that?” Rhodey asked.

Tony smiled at them both. “With your help, of course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Paul Bettany and James D'Arcy have similar colored eyes, and if you think I wasn't going to take advantage of that as I include some JARVIS feels, you're wrong.
> 
> EDIT: so apparently Vision has the mind stone, not the soul stone. For the purposes of this fic, the other stones don't ever really come up, so we're just going to roll with it.


	3. Chapter 3

A couple days later, Tony found himself sitting behind the desk in the office Pepper insisted he have with Pepper and Rhodey sitting across from him.

“You know,” he said, tapping his fingers on the armrests of his chair. “I don’t think I’ve actually done this in years.”

Pepper snorted. “Tony,” she said. “You barely did this when it was your job.”

“What is my position now, anyway?” he asked. He knew. He was head of R&D. The board wanted him as CTO, but that wasn’t happening. “Not that it matters.”

Pepper leveled him with a look and Rhodey just shook his head. It was almost fond, really. 

“Okay so,” he leaned to one side and pulled up a holoscreen in front of Pepper and Rhodey, the numbers and contracts he wanted to reference on the screen. “I think we should mostly go through Stark Industries,” he said. A few tweets about how Stark tech was infiltrating every level of life, both flattering and not, went up on the screen. “Everyone knows the name, and since we’ve introduced the home line we’re in a good place to monitor news consumption and stuff.”

“Tony,” Pepper said. “Most of the part of PR that isn’t focused on you is making sure people know we’re not spying on them and controlling them through our tech like every villain in an 80s movie trying to take over the world.”

“Fair,” Tony said, pointing a finger at her. “But we are trying to take over the world.”

“And,” Rhodey chimed in. “Tony at least donates enough that he’s not hated like Bezos.”

“Fuck Bezos,” Tony said. “But yes, we’ll keep that PR, of course. And we’re not going to be using the systems to spy on people’s conversations or anything.” He pulled up the app usage stats on the StarkTHome TVs and speakers. “Just see what news they’re gravitating toward. We can use this information to figure out which media conglomerates we want to get involved with, and then we can control what they have easy access to.”

Pepper pulled up her notes app on her tablet and started tapping away. Tony made the effort to not read her notes. “We should have a sale soon then,” she said. “Our prices are already competitive, we lower them and provide some sort of additional incentive. Maybe partner with Hulu or Netflix.”

Tony waved a hand. “We’ll let marketing iron out the details,” he said. “But yes, boosting sales of our tech will help. We’re lucky enough it’s not a prerequisite.”

“I’m assuming there’s more you want from the company than app usage data,” Pepper said, done with her typing. 

“Yep,” Tony said, popping the p. “Big picture things.”

Pepper raised a groomed eyebrow. “Which are?”

“Expanding,” Tony said. “I’m thinking a merger or two, maybe adding a couple divisions.” The benefit packages that employees chose as part of their onboarding came on screen. “We’ll also want to work on employee loyalty, not just brand loyalty of the customers, but of the employees. Upping pay and benefits will make them happier, and the higher-ups taking a pay cut to make it work will help quiet the internet commies.”

Pepper’s eyes narrowed. “And if I don’t want to take a pay-cut?”

Tony narrowed his eyes. Her largest expense was her art collection, and they were running out of wallspace. “Think of it as paying rent.”

“Tony....”

“Pepper,” he said. “I know what I paid you when you were my PA, if you really want to get into the details.” 

He could feel himself settling back into the role he played while CEO. He’d been a warmonger, and had proud of it while he lied to himself about the effects of his actions. He’d been paying for it ever since, but Pepper had never had that sort of moral breakthrough. She’d gone from the proud PA of an arms dealer to the CEO of a multi-million dollar company. She was a businesswoman to her core. 

“Your compensation last year was over eleven million dollars,” Tony pointed out, staring Pepper down.

Rhodey let out a low whistle.

“As my PA, you made a little over a hundred grand,” he continued, leaning forward. “Which, mind you, is around twice what others in similar positions make.”

Pepper didn’t flinch. It’s why she was good at her job.

“And you only made that much because I stole you from finance.” He was hitting where it hurt and he knew it, but he couldn’t afford to have this sort of resistance so early if he wanted to get anything done. “And that’s not factoring in your bonuses or gifts.”

He handed out bonuses like candy. They all knew it. Pepper was the only one who took them seriously, using her powers as his PA to make sure they went through.

Pepper sniffed.

“Most of your wealth is invested in either the stock market or art,” Tony said. “The rest is sitting there. I don’t touch your money for donations or reparations.” He couldn’t, even if he wanted to. Pepper never offered and Tony never asked. “I am the absolute last person to lecture you on what’s fair and what’s not or go anywhere near a debate about wealth inequality. But,” he sighed. “Reducing your payout alone will help the company and will help the whole taking over the world thing.”

A moment passed.

This wasn’t really something he’d planned for. Pepper always went along with his plans. Always.

Pepper smirked. “I’ll give up my bonus,” she said. “ I’ll introduce it at the next meeting and see if I can get any of the others to agree to anything similar.”

Tony smiled wide. “I knew I loved you for a reason.”

“Just one?”

He shrugged. “Maybe a bit more than one.” His smile shifted into a smirk. “There is that one thing you do with-”

“-I’m going to stop you there,” Rhodey cut in.

Pepper smiled. So it was a test. Thank God.

“What else do we need to do through the company?” Pepper asked.

He pulled up the latest press release regarding the Avengers. “We need to seperate Stark Industries from the Avengers and Iron Man,” he said. “Sure, I’ll still be Iron Man, but my actions as owner and actions as Avenger need to be separated. We can hire a different PR firm to handle my stuff, and we’ll work in the Avenger Initiative getting their own into the Accords or something.”

Rhodey tilted his head. “I could probably get that to work,” he said. “We could negotiate it as part of the Avengers being UN sponsored. If they make the decisions for the team, they take on the financial responsibilities.”

Pepper nodded. “PR will be happy to hear that,” she said. “And we can redirect them to handling the media and publicizing the changes in compensation.”

“Exactly,” Tony agreed. 

“And the new divisions?”

“Space,” Tony said, pulling up the satelling schematics he’s been working on. “I want satellites up that are ours alone.”

Rhodey frowned. “Ross isn’t going to like that.”

“He won’t like anything I do.” Tony flicked his hand and articles about SpaceX came up. “Besides, we can’t let ourselves be shown up by Elon Musk of all people. Rat bastard.”

“The board’s been bothering us about alien tech,” Pepper said. “Do you think we’d be able to incorporate any of that? Make it proprietary.”

Tony shrugged. “With SHIELD gone? Probably.”

\---

Later that day, Tony’s senses went haywire when an orange portal opening up next to him in the lab. 

_ “Boss,”  _ FRIDAY said.  _ “There’s an area evading my sensors in your immediate vicinity.” _

He nearly threw the wrench he was holding when Dr. Strange came through. “Jesus, Gandalf,” he yelped. “Ever heard of knocking?”

Dr. Strange raised a manicured brow. “Yes,” he said. “But knocking and expecting Tony Stark to answer? Not sure I’ve heard of that one.”

Tony sniffed.

Dr. Strange stepped closer and crossed his arms over his chest. “Can you pull up a holoscreen with your vitals?” he asked. “I’m assuming you have your AI track that somehow.”

The screen appeared. Strange’s eyes glanced over the data. “Looks good,” he said. “Not that I expected anything else.” He flicked the screen away to stare at Tony. “But that’s not really what I’m here to check up on.”

It was Tony’s turn to cross his arms over his chest. “Then what are you here to check up on?”

He knew, obviously.

Strange didn’t even pretend to consider the question, instead just giving him a flat look.

Tony shrugged. “There isn’t really an explanation that makes sense unless we factor in whatever magic you boosted me with, which we both know I hate factoring in.”

Strange nodded.

“Extremis is meant to open up the brain and expand the human experience or whatever it was that Killian preached,” Tony said, feeling like he was repeating himself for the hundredth time. He’d been going over this in his head whenever he had a spare moment. “Vision explained it as being like the reverse of him, human given technology instead of technology given...humanity.”

“An interesting philosophical question,” Strange said.

Tony waved a hand. “I don’t know what it is, I’m still getting a handle on it. I’m trying to rationalize it as code, but it’s not that visual.”

“So,” Strange said. “You...connect...with technology?”

Tony nodded. “Sort of, sure.”

“Can you control it?”

Tony mentally reached out for FRIDAY - he had the easiest time with her. She served as a sort of interface for everything else. He understood what he was doing easier when it was through FRIDAY. He built her. He  _ knew _ her. 

He called DUM-E and Butterfingers over and set them on Strange.  _ “Grab the cloak for me, will ya bud?” _

_ “Boss! Boss! Boss!”  _ and  _ “Yes! Grab! Bring to Boss!”  _ echoed through his head.

They weren’t the most advanced.

“It’s easier with some things,” Tony admitted, moving to sit on the table. “I’ve gotten certain simple tasks down to a mental flick of the wrist-” the holoscreen Strange had been looking at before switched to a news article covering a recent StarkTech release. “-like pulling up screens, turning on the tv, turning off the lights. That stuff I barely have to think about.”

Strange’s eyes narrowed. “But?”

“Other things are less instinctual, I guess?” DUM-E chose that moment to grab the cloak. “Like, that-” Tony pointed as Strange slapped DUM-E’s claw, paying no notice to Butterfingers. “Took me telling them to do that, through FRIDAY. It’s basically the same as a verbal command, just better received. They understand it better.”

Strange took large steps away from the bots. “How about tech that’s not yours?”

“I’ve played with the internet a bit,” Tony said, picking up a screwdriver to fiddle with. “But I’ve only really been in the compound and tower, driving back and forth. I’ve been keeping myself surrounded with tech I’ve had a hand in somehow, as much as possible.”

“And the suit?” Strange’s eyes veered over to where one of the older marks was displayed.

“Haven’t taken it for a test drive yet,” Tony said. “The suit is already extremely responsive.”

He was going to today, actually, before Strange showed up. 

His biggest fear was that he’d connect too much, would somehow get lost in the tech. He’d had more than one nightmare of getting lost in some sort of 1980s shitty special effect data stream.

Strange hummed. “I think…” he started. “I think whatever happened to you is similar enough to magic.”

Tony’s mouth opened.

Strange raised up a hand. “Not the same, but at least as far as getting a handle of it.”

“What do you mean?”

The corner of Strange’s mouth curled up in a smirk. “It means that to get a handle on this, you’re going to need to get a handle on yourself. Some self-reflection would do you good.”

Tony’s eyes narrowed.

“Meditate, Stark. An hour a day, at least.” Strange started to open up a portal. “Look into yourself, and then you can look outside of yourself. I think you might have more control over the world around you than you realize.”

\---

James Rhodes took in a breath as he rolled into the compound’s common area. He didn’t blame Vision, not really, but it still didn’t make this easier.

Vision was standing in the middle of the room. “Colonel Rhodes,” he greeted with a nod. “Ms. Potts told me you wished to speak with me.”

James nodded. “I do.”

“What is it?” Vision asked. “Do you need me for anything?”

“I do, actually,” he said, rolling forward a few feet. “I’m about to go to some talks about the Accords.” 

“I see.”

He wasn’t stupid. According to Tony, Vision still had some bit of JARVIS in there. In theory, Vision was loyal to Tony. In theory, he’d go along with this.

That theory had been proved wrong before. 

James lifted his head to meet Vision’s gaze. “I want you to come with me.”

“Why?” Vision asked. “I don’t see how I could be useful.”

“I get pity points,” he said, pointing at his legs. “Or at least I get listened to since I’ve had to deal with the consequences of my actions.”

“Colonel Rhodes, I really am sorry-”

“-Nope.” James cut in. “No apologies. It’s in the past.”

Vision didn’t have anything to say to that.

“But what you can do for me is stand, or sit, by my side. Show we’re working together,” he said, keeping his voice steady. “Show that you’re on Tony’s side.”

Pepper had emphasized presenting a united front. He would have suggested the same thing. Vision was one of the ones that had opposed them. If they got Vision on their side - and he had come back here, he hadn’t ran off with Rogers to Wakanda. Surely that had to count for something.

A moment passed. Neither he nor Vision blinked.

Vision inclined his head. “Very well.”

\---

Strange had told him to meditate. Looking inward was the exact sort of thing Tony made a habit of avoiding. In its place, he turned to alcohol, sex, and work. He’d had a stint with cocaine in the 80s, but that had just escalated the alcohol, sex, and work.

He pulled up the schematics for War Machine.

“FRIDAY,” he said, expanding the image. “Highlight the barebones. I don’t need protection or weaponization, just support.”

He’d been saying the suit was just an advanced prosthetic for years now, maybe it was time to put his money where his mouth was. For Rhodey. 

Rhodey was potentially putting everything on the line for him. Rhodey deserved this and everything else he even thought about wanting.

Pepper and Rhodey both. 

Tony flicked away the outer shell of the armor on the schematics.

He needed more than just Pepper and Rhodey. Even with Vision possibly added to the mix, he needed more than that. 

They were facing politics, aliens, and Steve Rogers. Any one of those on its own was enough to fill anyone’s plate. But all three together? 

He had some recruiting to do.


	4. Chapter 4

Driving was still weird, Tony decided. Being in a car was one thing, driving it was another. The tech mind meld thing he did just added another layer of shit he needed to be aware of. The car, an Audi R8, did Not like the stop and go traffic of New York City. Tony couldn’t blame it. Her. Definitely had a feminine energy. 

He parked the car, probably illegally, on Bleeker Street and stepped out on the sidewalk. He mentally locked the car as he walked toward the door. 

Tony Stark did not usually knock on doors. He stared at it for a moment. Nothing was usual anymore. 

He knocked three times.

It opened immediately, revealing absolutely no one. He hated magic.

The building was old. The type of old that’d have Pepper calling it charming instead of outdated. He felt something itch under his skin. Maybe coming here wasn’t the best idea. Not nearly enough tech. He fished his phone out of his pocket and clutched it tight in his hand. FRIDAY was there. He still had FRIDAY.

Tony did not jump when an orange portal suddenly opened next to him. He reacted instinctively in order to clear the space for the wizard.

“Stark,” Strange said as he stepped through, greeting Tony with a cool stare. “Have you been meditating?”

Tony turned away, letting his eyes run over the walls. “Can’t say I have been, doc.”

Strange didn’t seem surprised. “Have the suits reacted any differently?”

“If I knew that they did, I wouldn’t tell you,” Tony answered, still looking away. 

“Hmm,” Strange hummed. “Didn’t think you were the type to avoid things.”

He shrugged. “I’m expanding my horizons.”

Tony felt something shift around him. He blinked and they were in a different room, one that appeared to be a library.

“Hey,” he said, turning to strange with a finger pointed at the wizard’s chest. “What the fuck was that?”

Strange shrugged, the faintest hint of a smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. “Figured we’d be more comfortable not in the entryway.”

Tony crossed his arms over his chest. He regretted leaving his sunglasses in the car. The itchy feeling intensified. He ignored it.

“I take it you’re not here for a check-up,” Strange said, after a moment. He was walking in a circle around Tony. 

“Can’t say that I am,” Tony agreed.

Strange made a gesture with his hand and a chair appeared. “Do sit.”

He sat.

It took a lot for him to do that. He’d never liked being the one sitting down while people stood, talked, and moved around him. Always made him feel trapped. 

Strange stopped in front of Tony, hands folded behind his back. “So, why are you here?”

Tony took in a breath. This was it, really. The first test run. Pepper and Rhodey were always going to go along with it, eventually. Strange was an outsider. Someone who had no interest in going along with what he was saying because he was the one saying it.

“How much do you know about what led to the creation of the accords?” 

Strange’s shoulders lifted in a subtle shrug. “Not much.”

Tony had a feeling that was a lie. 

“There’s not much to know,” Tony said, shifting his weight to the side and crossing his legs. “What’s important is that it ended in disaster. What led to the disaster is something I still stand by.”

“And what led to the disaster?” Strange summoned a chair for himself and sat down.

A little bit of tension escaped Tony. Strange was willing to listen.

“I’ll get there,” he said. “But first, Sorcerer Supreme? That’s your title? Right?”

Strange nodded.

“Right,” Tony said. “That means you’re in charge of everything? Keeping the realities in check?”

“Not exactly,” Strange said. His eyes narrowed. “I’m more interested in how you discovered this information.”

It had been tricky. Tony couldn’t blame him for being curious. The wizards had a way of keeping far away from technology. But what he had found had been enough to piece it together. 

He waved his hand. “The internet is an amazing thing,” he said. “Especially when you have a propensity for ignoring security measures and the ability to slip right past them.”

Strange’s face didn’t relax.

“The how’s not important though,” Tony said, leaning forward a bit. “You’re in charge of protecting your wizards and also everyone else.”

“And?”

And this is where he tended to lose people. Tony took in a breath to steady himself.

“It feels like a lifetime ago now,” Tony started. “But New York, when I went through the wormhole, the army was endless. Loki was being mind controlled by something. Someone. There’s someone out there and we’ve caught their attention and they’re heading our way.”

Strange raised a brow. “Surely you didn’t think we were alone in the universe?”

“No,” Tony admitted, shaking his head. “Not at all. But it’s different believing something in the abstract sense and then having a being people worshipped as god show up. And there’s an even larger difference between finding out Thor and Loki are real and actually the equivalent of like, college kids, and finding out that there’s an entire universe that wants you dead.”

Strange shifted to mirror him. Good. “How did this realization lead to the accords?”

Tony sent an instinctive prayer up to a god he didn’t believe in, grateful that the wizard was smart and asking the right questions. 

He let some tension leave his shoulders. “Because my instinctive reaction to the threat was to defend against it,” he admitted. “A shield around the world.” He took in a breath. “Some...outside influences...made it shift. Ultron, an AI meant to act as a defense, became twisted and it rose up against us, killing JARVIS in the process. One thing led to another and then Sokovia took the brunt of it and boom, the Accords were born.”

Strange just looked at him. For the first time, Tony could see the weight of the man’s title. Could see it in how carefully Strange held himself. The sort of responsibility Strange had was the kind that aged you. It made you consider everything ten times over before making any sort of decision. Knowing that if anything went wrong, it was on you.

Tony had taken that on himself. He hadn’t felt like he had a choice, but Strange had had even less of one.

“You still want that defense,” Strange said, tone steady. 

Tony swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat. “I do.”

“Why did you come here?” Strange asked. “The first steps here are political, and after that it’s a matter of funding and technology. And I’m sure you know that’s the last thing I’m going to get involved in. I shouldn’t be talking to you even. My position is completely separate from the Avengers, no matter how fractured they might be currently.”

“You’re right,” Tony said with a nod. “The first steps here are political, and they’re something you’re going to stay separate from.”

“But?”

“But,” Tony continued. “I’m not here asking for your political support.”

“Then why are you here?” Strange asked.

“I’m here because you’re someone I’m going to be seeing with some frequency,” he gestured toward his head. “Even if it’s just for checkups and such. I’d rather know you were on my side, or at the very least, not against me. I don’t want to have to step on eggshells around you.”

Strange steepled his hands together in front of his face. 

“I want to know if you’re someone I can turn to if I have an idea, or if I’m better off keeping my mouth shut.”

Strange hummed.

“I’m sick of it,” Tony said. “I understand the necessity of asskissing when dealing with politicians, I really do. But I want to keep that to a minimum in the rest of my life.”

“Fine.” 

Tony looked toward Strange from where his focus had been wandering over the library walls. “Fine?” 

Strange nodded. “Yes,” he confirmed. “Fine.”

\---

Tony slid his sunglasses onto his face as he exited the elevator. 

Stark Industries had absorbed some of those who had been employed by SHIELD, mostly the paper pushers, but also a decent number of people who were okay with not risking their life for their job on a regular basis. The ones who wanted to settle down and have time with their families. Some worked security, some were in finance or IT. Most of them went to sales, marketing, and PR. 

Most, not all. A decent handful remained active. Stark Industries already allowed its employees to consult and do contracting on the side. A few changes to the verbage made it no different for the former agents.

He’d even re-opened an old gun range Stark Industries never got around to selling for them. They recognized it as a way to keep an eye on them. Tony appreciated that they used it anyway/

“Mr. Stark!” one of Pepper’s personal assistants called out, stepping out from behind her desk to stand in front of him. “I don’t have you down for a meeting with Ms. Potts today.”

That right there was why this one belonged to Pepper and not one of the other useless bodies in the C-Suite.

“Is she with anyone right now?” he asked.

“Well, no-”

“Then we’re good,” he interrupted before she could say Pepper was working on something important. “Besides,” he looked over his shoulder as he stepped past her. “This is business related.”

He heard the girl huff out a breath behind him as he opened the door to Pepper’s office.

Pepper looked up when he walked in, her face wearing that particular combination of narrowed eyes and the hint of a smile that was so uniquely Pepper.

“Tony,” she said, leaning back in her desk chair. “What brings you to the real world?”

He sniffed and pointedly turned his head away from her. “Are you saying I don’t live in the real world?”

“I believe that’s exactly what I’m saying,” Pepper said, lips stretched into a proper smile. He really had lucked out with the timing, fancy that. “You grace these walls with your presence less and less as time goes on. What brings you here today, oh mighty Stark?”

Tony laughed as he moved to sit on the corner of Pepper’s desk. It wasn’t his old one, just Pepper’s. Probably custom made and everything. 

“I’m going to be gathering some of our recent employees together,” he said, simultaneously typing up the email and having FRIDAY call the people he needed to summon. He didn’t want to give them too much time to think it through.“This afternoon I’ll be seeing if they’ll be willing to do some contract work for me. Put to the test if what Natashalie always said about a real-person spy being better than a computer is true or not.”

Pepper’s right brow quirked up. “Tony…”

“My bet’s on the computer,” he said, grabbing for one of Pepper’s weird desk sculpture things. He tried to balance it on his knee. It did not want to do that. Unfortunate. “But we can call it a performance evaluation or something.”

“Contract work?” Pepper asked, eyes boring into the side of his head. “Through Stark industries? That doesn’t seem a very politically sound move.”

He shrugged. “And that’s why I’m not doing it through Stark Industries. They might happen to work the company you do such a great job of running.” Tony flashed his PR smile. “But, I’m approaching them as independent professionals or whatever you want to call them.”

“Spies, Tony,” Pepper said. “You’re hiring spies to do your dirty work.”

He pointed a finger at her. “Hey,” he said. “You hired them first.”

“But not as spies.”

Tony fidgeted with the weird moving statue thing. “Semantics,” he said. “Besides, you know I’m going to need people. Especially if we’re trying to be subtle and smart I can’t exactly be seen everywhere something happens.”

“Tony,” Pepper said. This time it came out more as a sigh. The familiar sound of acceptance and resignation. “Why are you telling me then? Why did you come to my office then?”

“To see you?”

She leaned forward to press a kiss to his cheek. “Well,” she said. “In that case, you’re taking me to lunch.”

He set the statue thing on the desk. “It’d be my pleasure, Ms. Potts.”

\---

There were eight people sitting in front of him. They were in a boardroom on one of the upper floors of the tower. 

Tony mentally looked through the list of former SHIELD agents and who had been contacted from that list. Fewer had been taking outside work than he thought.

_ “You pay more than SHIELD did, Boss,”  _ FRIDAY chimed in.  _ “And they only take a very small number of jobs.” _

She was right, like always. Looks like these were the adrenaline junkies of the group. He could relate.

They stared him down the way SHIELD agents usually did. Curious, vaguely threatening, not entirely sure what to do with him.

He wasn’t sure what to do with them either. He tended to keep things above board when it came to involving other people.

He crossed his arms over his chest and dimmed the lights not aimed his way with a small smirk. The former agents’ eyes focused on him a bit more. Perfect. 

“So,” he started. “You’re probably wondering why I’ve gathered you here today.”

The agent closest to his right snorted. 

He smiled. At the same time, he had NDAs appear on the holoscreens built into the table. This was the fancy boardroom. Pepper used it to intimidate people.

“In front of you you’ll find a document that’s very similar to the NDA you signed when you began working for Stark Industries,” he said. “But, the main different is that this is tied to me, not the company.”

“Are you saying you don’t trust us?” a cool voice asked. He looked over to find a plain-faced blonde girl. 

_ “Jordan Walker,”  _ FRIDAY chimed in.  _ “26. Most of her field experience was in Russia. Spent most of time at SHIELD translating intel and coordinating ops.” _

Huh. A wannabe Natasha.

Tony shook his head with a chuckle. “I’m not that stupid, Walker.”

She showed no visible reaction. 

He knocked his knuckles against the table. “Sign and then we can talk about what you’re all here for. Signing this does not mean you agree to work for me.”

It didn’t take long for everyone to sign. They all knew what they did. They all knew what he did. It wasn’t everyday Iron Man called in for backup, especially of the non-superhero variety.

He sat down in the chair at the head of the table a few seconds after the NDAs were all signed.

“So,” he slapped his hands down on to the table. “I’m sure you’ve all heard of the little domestic between Rogers and I.”

He got an incredulous look or two for that. God, there was something so fun about talking to people who weren’t used to him.

“And I wanted to see how you all feel about defiling an American landmark.”

The kid who snorted before gave a small shrug of his shoulders. “If what you pay me as security personnel is an indicator, I’m willing to do anything you want.”

A few quiet chuckles circled the room.

The woman next to the snorter tilted her head to the side. “You earned my loyalty the moment you wiped my records in the SHIELD leak.”

He gave them a moment, looking around the room. He made sure to meet everyone’s eyes, looking for any hesitance or deceit. He didn’t find any.

“Even if this defiling is a bit...permanent?” he asked.

He waited a beat.

No protests were made.

Tony grinned. Looks like he wouldn’t need to get his own hands dirty to deal with Steve Rogers after all.


	5. Chapter 5

Step one in permanently defiling a national landmark: hire assassins.

Check.

“FRIDAY,” Tony called out, twirling a screwdriver in his hands as he leaned back in a chair. The workshop was empty aside from him. Just how he liked it. “Make a list. I want to see step one crossed off. Preferably with a live-action visual.”

A nearby holoscreen popped up, Step One written on a yellow notebook paper background. 

_ “Sure thing, Boss,”  _ FRIDAY said as a line went through the center of the words, just slow enough to be dramatic. Pepper would be so proud.

“The pencil scritch was a nice touch.” He flipped the screwdriver in his hand. “But I never want to hear any sound implying paper in my presence again.”

Step two: reach out to the sovereign who he totally didn’t know was hosting said national landmark and friends.

“What are Wakanda’s firewalls like?” Tony asked.

The different screens lit up around him as he looked at them. He twitched his fingers in the direction of the one to his left, pulling up the satellite images of the country. He turned to the right to find the CIA’s report on the security risks Wakanda could bring.

He dropped the screwdriver and clapped his hands together as he scooted his chair closer to the CIA screen. He spread his hands apart and zoomed in on the page. A flick of his finger had him scrolling to the bottom. 

“Unbreakable, huh…” he trailed off, muttering to himself. “Say, FRIDAY,” he called out. “What time is it in Wakanda right now?”

_ “West Africa Standard Time,”  _ FRIDAY answered.  _ “Three in the morning.” _

Tony rocked back in his chair and wished he hadn’t dropped the screwdriver. He tapped a nonsensical pattern on his thigh with his fingers. 

He respected T’Challa. In theory. As a concept. It took a lot of balls to keep an entire country hidden from the rest of the world. He’d never been one for staying in the shadows, didn’t think he had it in him. But he could understand how powerful a motivator spite and revenge could be.

At the very least, he liked the idea of T’Challa enough to make sure their future disagreements stayed between Tony and Wakanda. No need to involve the other governments. 

He had to take care. The firewalls weren’t a problem. Wakanda’s technology was the most advanced he’d seen outside of his own lab. More advanced than what he’d seen in his lab when he took into account the accessibility. 

To anyone else, that might have posed a problem. Hell, a few months ago that would have had Tony hesitating. 

Now? Not so much. There’d be a slight learning curve, he was sure. But if T’Challa was connected in any way to a Wakandan network, he’d have an in. 

He’d catch T’Challa bright and early. Get him off-guard, but somehow a message accompanying the morning sun didn’t carry the same threat as one in the middle of the night. 

He had five hours to figure out what he needed to say. 

Tony didn’t want to have T’Challa go against him, not really. Technically, T’Challa was in the wrong for harboring known fugitives. Several countries were out for blood. Tony was just representing himself. 

He needed Pepper.

She was currently in the penthouse, making tea while reading through some quarterly report. The kettle just went off. 

He closed the email app on Pepper’s tablet, replacing it with a note page telling her to come to the lab once her tea was finished steeping.

Tony grinned to himself as he kicked his chair away from his work table. God, he loved technology.

Pepper walked into the workshop about twenty minutes later, wearing that familiar resigned but fond expression she donned so often around him.

“Tony,” she greeted, the hint of a smile pulling at her lips. She came over to sit down on one of his worktables, tablet sitting next to her and her feet left dangling. “What is it?”

He spun around to face her, all the documents pertaining to Wakanda hosting Team Cap moved to the holoscreen closest to Pepper. “I have a meeting with T’Challa in a few hours,” he said. “I want to make sure it goes well.”

She tilted her head to the side. “Why so early?”

He shrugged. “Well, his majesty does not know we’re having a meeting.” He pulled up T’Challa’s schedule with surprisingly little effort. “Besides,” he added with a grin. “He’s free.”

Pepper gave him a sharp look. “Tony…”

She was impressed. He could tell. 

“He’s harboring fugitives,” he pointed out, gesturing toward the screen with all the official documentation. “Video calling him early in the morning is hardly the worst thing I could be doing.” 

She crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes scanning over T’Challa’s schedule. “Fine,” she said. “What do need me for then?”

“One,” Tony said, scooting over to place his hands on his knees and look up at her. “Your presence makes everything better.” He started to move his hands in small circles. “Two, I don’t want to ruin anything with Wakanda. I’m not going after T’Challa, I’m going after Rogers.”

“What do you mean?” Pepper asked, leaning forward.

“Well,” Tony started. “I want to make sure he knows that it’s a bad idea to put too much effort going against me without issuing an outright threat. And I want to plan a face-to-face meeting in the near future. Rogers won’t officially be invited, but he’ll end up coming anyway.”

“And that’s where you need me, I’m assuming?” Pepper’s brow was doing that lifting thing it did. “To keep it diplomatic?”

Tony nodded, giving her his best puppy dog eyes.

She brought a hand up to run through his hair and smiled. “Let’s see what I can do.”

“Why thank you, Miss. Potts.”

She smiled. “You’re welcome, Mr. Stark.”

“I love you.” He lifted his chin to press a kiss to the inside of Pepper’s palm. “Just so you know.”

\---

The schedule Tony pulled up for Pepper was the relatively public one he made available to people who needed to know when a King had time. He’d fetched it from the UN servers, not Wakanda’s. With Wakanda’s recent debut, T’Challa was facing more pressure and attention from outside than ever before.

People had questions and T’Challa was doing everything he could to provide answers. 

_ “It is currently 7:55 am in Wakanda.”  _ FRIDAY reminded.  _ “Miss Potts asked me to make sure your made yourself presentable before calling his majesty.” _

He ran a hand through his hair and looked down at his shirt. It was clean. T’Challa would have to just put up with the t-shirt today. 

The problem wasn’t that Wakanda was disconnected from the rest of the world, because it never truly had been. The country was a technological marvel, but even for people that brilliant, being truly disconnected was practically impossible in today’s world. The problem was that the country was as close to disconnected as possible. 

They didn’t have enough people to warrant their own many alternatives to social media platforms like China, and the Wakandan government didn’t make it illegal for people to browse the internet as they wished. There were layers of firewalls and VPNs in place.

Lucky for him, Tony didn’t need to find any old leak, he was looking for a very specific one. 

T’Challa had regular communication with UN representatives and countless others. Those channels were open and frequently used. The problem with them was that they were watched by the people that used them.

The UN was exactly who Tony did not want seeing his activity right now. And because people were watching Wakanda like a hawk, he couldn’t just close or block a channel to hide his presence. He could if he didn’t want T’Challa to not hate him completely. But that wasn’t what he was trying to do.

And he found it. If he had to visualize it, the already existing communication between Wakanda and others were like bridges out of a town completely enclosed by a moat. He just needed to go under the bridge. 

And so he did.

Mrs. Jarvis had always baked on Sundays. She’d make a roast and a pie and leave it out on the windowsill to cool like they always did in the cartoons. It was no secret that Tony had a tendency for getting in trouble, but Mrs. Jarvis had never given anything more than a swat with a spoon when she caught him sneaking a taste. She always caught him.

If he had to compare the feeling to anything, sneaking his way into a video call with T’Challa was like the time he had stuck his finger into a pie that hadn’t quite cooled yet. The hot burn of hot, sugary fruit that you really weren’t supposed to be touching followed by sweet satisfaction.

And just like Mrs. Jarvis, T’Challa was waiting for him.

“Mr. Stark,” T’Challa greeted, sounding both welcoming and scolding. Apparently, he and Pepper had taken the same lessons. “This is a surprise.”

Focusing in on the image in front of him instead of the one in his head was disorienting, like the first step out of the house on a cold day, but he quickly got over it with a quick nod.

“Thought I’d pop in for a visit,” Tony said, grinning. “I know you’ve been thinking about me.”

T’Challa hummed. “Is that so?”

“It is,” Tony said. 

Wakanda’s internal servers were unlike anything he’d ever seen, something just a bit foreign to them that had him scrambling for a split second as he searched for mentions of Rogers and friends. Less than half of the data was english, and Tony had always had difficulties with the non-romantic languages.

Lucky for him, Steve Rogers was distinctly American.

“So what can I do for you?” T’Challa asked. 

The man radiated patience. It was almost infuriating. Tony felt like anything T’Challa said would just seem reasonable and like it made all the sense in the world. It appeared that the king was a morning person.

“I heard you’re hosting a sleepover for some of my buddies,” he said, looking into the camera. One of the perks about not needing an interface was that there was no way of seeing what he was doing. “I’m hurt I wasn’t invited. Thought I’d take it up with prom queen. In this case, you.”

“You speak of Captain Rogers,” T’Challa said after a moment. Tony was near certain it was carefully measured too. 

“Yep,” Tony said. “The man’s kind of a criminal, you see. And he almost killed me not that long ago. I find myself holding a bit of a grudge.”

There wasn’t a lot on Rogers. Wakanda didn’t make a habit of deeply researching World War II relics. Everything they had was from the past couple of months. 

Apparently, he’d made his way through a rather large number of punching bags. Seemed he still had that nasty habit.

T’Challa some sort of noise of contemplation. “As an individual, you do not have the power or the authority to bring Captain Rogers in.”

Tony tapped his fingers on the desk. Loud enough for T’Challa to hear. “It would take very little effort for me to get the backing I need to have the power or authority.”

“Oh?” T’Challa asked.

“As a billionaire, I basically own everything,” Tony said. “And while the government isn’t supposed to be able to be bought, it can get a bit fuzzy on the technicalities.”

“I see.”

Tony blinked. “Do you?”

In that moment he pulled up Roger’s, Barton’s, and Lang’s files on T’Challa’s monitors. Next to the files, he pulled up a copy of the accords with the violated sections in bold and a list of demanded reparations.

He silently thanked Pepper and had FRIDAY make a reminder to buy her an entire show’s worth of couture when it was the season.

T’Challa’s eyes widened and Tony almost crowed in victory at the sight. He’d caught the king off guard. Achievement unlocked.

Above him, a sound effect went off that he was pretty sure was from an old game of Mario Kart. 

T’Challa breathed out through his nose. “Apparently I do not,” he admitted. “But I believe I have a much better idea now.”

Tony smiled. “I’m happy to hear it.”

“What do you want?” T’Challa asked, a hint of tension in his voice. “I’m afraid I cannot just hand Rogers over. I gave him my word, and that is not something I take lightly.”

“What I want,” Tony said. “Is for them to get their due.”

“I’m afraid that’s not something I can do at this time.”

Tony nodded. “And I understand that,” he said. “I don’t expect anything to get settled right now. Think of this call as a friendly request.”

T’Challa’s brows rose on his forehead. “Is hacking my private server what you call friendly?”

Tony shrugged.

“What can I do for you now then, Mr. Stark?” T’Challa asked.

“Now,” Tony answered, grinning. “We can arrange a meeting, face-to-face, neutral territory where we can agree on something more final.”

“You?” T’Challa asked. “Or will you be representing a greater force?”

“I’m plenty great a force on my own, your Majesty,” Tony countered. “But, I will be talking to the secretary of defense and such to make it as official as possible.”

“Just a meeting?” T’Challa asked.

Tony nodded. “Just a meeting. Possibly the first of several.”

“Very well,” T’Challa agreed. “That I can do.”

“Pleasure doing business with you.” 

Tony ended the call before T’Challa could ask him anything else.

Step two? Check.

“FRIDAY,” he called out. “Cross it off the list.”

\---

A couple days later he was lying in bed with Pepper tucked against his side. Her head was lying on his chest and he ran his fingers through her hair. He didn’t know who it was more soothing for, him or Pepper.

It was rare they got moments like this, both so busy with everything in their lives. It made them that much more precious. If Tony could choose a moment to suspend himself in indefinitely, this would be a top contender.

There was something so nice in having her pressed against him like this, curling around him with all of her supermodel limbs. He sighed and just breathed in her scent. Perfect. Perfect Pepper. 

Perfect Pepper Picked a Pail of Pickled Peppers.

Pepper tilted her head up to look at him at his huff of light laughter. “What’s so funny?”

He shook his head. “Nothing,” he said. He moved his hand to run it down her back. “I’m just happy is all.”

Her face twisted.

“Pepper?” he asked.

She brought a hand up to her chest and started to play with the fabric of his shirt, right over where the arc reactor used to be. She looked away from him at her hand.

“Tony, I’ve been thinking.”

He’d always been too sensitive toward those around him, and he had a very bad feeling about where this was going. Pepper’s back was tense under his hand. He pulled it away.

“I’d hope so,” he managed to get out. “Or else you’d make a pretty shitty CEO.”

Tony could feel her pull herself together. And she still wasn’t looking at him.

"I’ve been thinking about us, Tony,” she said. “And I don’t think we’re a good fit anymore.”

Having an idea that she could say it and actually hearing it were two very different things. It physically hurt. 

He froze.

Pepper twisted the fabric of his shirt tighter between her fingers. 

“It’s just…” she started. “It’s not that I love you any less. I love you so much.”

“Then why?” it came out sharper than he intended. “Is that not enough?”

Tony wasn’t even looking at Pepper, instead letting his eyes focus on the ceiling. There was one particular bump that was slightly bigger than the rest. 

Pepper let out a sigh. “No,” she said after a moment. “I don’t think it is.”

“Why not?”

“How do I know that I don’t just stay with you because it’s easy?” she asked. “Not that it’s easy. Loving you is far from easy.”

He couldn’t say anything to that.

“But you’re here. I’m here. My life has rotated around you in some way for the majority of my career. You’ve been my professional and my personal life for so long I’m not sure if there ever was any separation,” Pepper started to ramble. “Do I love you because I am genuinely in love with you? Are you my best friend? Both? Neither? I don’t know anymore, Tony.”

He knew better than to hope. But it still rose within him. Sharp and bright and everything he didn’t need right now because it would only hurt him more later on.

“What does this mean for us then?” he asked, still not looking at her. “What changes?”

Pepper rolled off of him onto her back. “Less than it should.”

And therein laid the problem. 

He could see what she meant. Their lives were so connected that there was practically no beginning or end. It’s what made it work, but also maybe what made it so difficult. How much was convenience and how much real between them?

Gun to the head, he’d never be able to say he didn’t love her. 

“I think I’m going to go now,” Pepper said, pulling away from him.

He listened as she walked away and the door shut behind her. 

They already had separate bedrooms. Maybe this was where they’d been headed all along.

He missed not knowing the exact moment, not knowing the exact coordinates of where he was. He always asked FRIDAY out of habit, not out of need. All it took was a thought anymore and he knew.

There was a certain peace in lying somewhere listlessly, not knowing how much time had passed since getting lost in his own head. Before he was still able to zone out. But the more he got used to everything in his head, it grew more and more difficult. He knew that exactly fourteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds had passed since Pepper walked through the door.

A side-effect of extremis was a faster metabolism. The same thing that Rogers and the kid were always eating to sate their endless appetites had him guzzling protein shakes and eating weight-gain bars between meals just to break-even.

He hadn’t tried getting drunk yet. No time like the present.

Five minutes and sixteen seconds passed before he got himself to move out of bed. Another two minutes and nine seconds before he stopped staring at his reflection in the mirror and actually left his bedroom for the lab.

FRIDAY had old videos of the kid doing his swing thing already playing when he walked in.

Two hours and twenty-four minutes later had him downing an entire bottle of scotch and feeling no more than tipsy. It ebbed and flowed, the drunkenness. But didn’t fully numb anything the way he needed it to.

He leaned back and stared at the glass in his hand for thirteen minutes and seven seconds before he tossed it in DUM-E’s direction. 

Was he even human anymore? He’d always joked to himself that maybe it’d be better if he had been born a machine. Maybe then the weight of Howard’s disappointment wouldn’t have hurt so much. Maybe Howard would have been proud of his machine son. A machine wasn’t soft and squishy and stupid like a human. Didn’t expect love and affection the way a human son did.

Wasn’t this what he had wanted? All those years ago?

This was part of what Pepper couldn’t put up with anymore, he was sure. Boundaries had already been practically non-existent before, he’d never been good at them. But now? With the entire world at his fingertips?

He couldn’t blame her for wanting to distance herself.

Hell, if he had the choice, he’d be right there with her. 

He’d never wanted Extremis. It’d also been the backup to the backup. Plan Z. 

He hadn’t asked for this.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha, sorry about the very late update.
> 
> I started my grad program in August, have kind of pulled away from the MCU, and have had covid. I make no promises about the regularity of updates, but I am hoping to keep up with this.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

People were constantly walking in and out of Stark Tower; it was an office building in New York City. He’d gotten pretty good at tuning it out. It was rare FRIDAY’s, and subsequently his, attention was caught by any individual person.

Laura Barton walking into Stark Tower’s lobby with a determined set to her shoulders and three children in tow and politely informing one of the receptionists that she wished to speak to Tony Stark was one of those rare instances.

The average person couldn’t just walk into a Fortune 100 company and ask to speak to the owner. That wasn’t how the world worked. There was an invisible, uncrossable barrier between the average man and the c-suite and board members. But Laura Barton was married to an avenger and impossible things were her bread and butter.

It took Tony less than thirty minutes to get to the tower. Somehow during that time, the kids had managed to make themselves right at home in his penthouse, sharing a bag of cheetos and watching some random Disney movie.

The cheetos were delivered alongside a pizza and a six pack of coke. The movie was Moana and FRIDAY had pulled it up less than five minutes after the Bartons arrived when Laura made some words about them needing to occupy themselves.

He landed, leaving his suit standing behind him to act as a sentinel. 

The kids weren’t looking at him, too preoccupied with the movie and with each other. But Laura caught his eye and glanced meaningfully to the breakfast bar behind her.

Tony smoothed down the front of his shirt, not that it needed smoothing, and moved toward the kitchen. 

He sat down and mentally started the espresso machine.

“So,” Tony said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Can I get you anything? You seem to have made yourselves comfortable.”

It was a snide remark, but it was meant to be.

Laura narrowed her eyes. It was a look Pepper wore often. On Pepper it meant she was either internally counting to ten or she had already made up her mind and he was about to meet his maker.

On Laura Barton, it seemed she was searching for patience.

“I’ll have a cappuccino,” she said after a moment. “Whole milk, if you have it.”

Behind her, the machine started to do its thing.

“What brings you to my humble abode?”

She snorted but appeared to relax against the counter. “If this is what you call humble, I don’t want to see your definition of extravagant.”

Tony shrugged his shoulders. 

She had two missed calls on her phone, five unread text messages, and various news alerts. None appeared to be from Barton. Interesting.

“They don’t call me a billionaire for nothing, you know.” He threw in his famous smirk -- the one that had graced countless magazine covers. “Coffee’s done, by the way.”

Laura rolled her eyes but stood up, setting her bag on the counter as she did so. “Thanks.”

“Mi casa es su casa,” Tony said, spreading his hands to gesture to the penthouse. “Now, tell me why you’re here.”

She took a careful sip of the cappuccino. “As you know, I’ve been married to Clint Barton for many years now.”

A mental query told Tony it had been fifteen years, three months, and eighteen days.

“I was never involved in his work,” she continued. “I never knew the details, but I learned to keep an eye out on international news and get a feel for the politics of a given moment.”

Tony flicked his hand to gesture for her to continue. He was growing impatient. 

“And I have the feeling, Mr. Stark, that you.” Laura punctuated her statement by setting down her mug. “Are going to have a large role in the near future.”

“I’m not sure if you’ve noticed.” Tony leaned forward, tapping the fingers of one hand on the counter. “But your husband and me aren’t exactly getting along right now. Tell me why you’re here or I will have you and your spawn escorted out by security.”

Laura took in a deep breath. “I’m divorcing Clint,” she said, words carefully measured. “I want your protection.”

“And why,” Tony asked. “Would I want to give you that?”

“You’re a petty man, Mr. Stark.”

Tony shrugged. “I can’t disagree with you there, but I don’t think insulting me is earning you any favors right now.”

She took in another breath. It seemed like that was her preferred calming mechanism. 

“Because, Mr. Stark,” Laura said, the words starting to carry some bite. She reached into her bag and pulled out a manilla folder. “I’m asking you to deliver the divorce papers.”

Tony smiled. “Now that,” he said. “I can do.”

\---

Looking at Pepper hurt. 

There she was, sitting behind her desk a vision of professionalism and perfection. The sunlight streaming in through the windows played off the golden tones in her hair and created a halo behind her. Her dress was navy blue and her necklace a tasteful diamond. Tony was sure he had bought both of them, or at least his money had. She liked to write these things off as business expenses.

But he could do this.

Rhodey was in one of the elevators and should be rolling through the door within the next two minutes.

_ “FRIDAY, remind me to finish Rhodey’s legs.” _

_ “Sure thing, BOSS.” _

“Tony,” Pepper said. “I have a meeting in an hour that I can’t miss.”

He waved his hand and relaxed back into the chair. “This won’t take that long, just a check in, really.”

She gave him a flat look. “You’re not one for regular updates.”

“No, I’m not,” he agreed. “But taking over the world requires a certain flair.”

“So,” Rhodey said from behind him, rolling forward. “You’re still sticking to that.”

“Honeybear!” Tony greeted. “Of course I am, and that’s why we’re all here.”

Rhodey sighed.

Pepper picked up a stylus and began to twirl it in her hand. “Where are we on that front, anyway?”

Tony pulled up a holoscreen to his side featuring the calendar FRIDAY kept and the files he’d pulled from Wakanda’s servers.

“I have a meeting with T’Challa. We’ll be meeting at a neutral location.” 

Rhodey turned to him after skimming what he could see of the files. “Who’s we?” 

“Me, obviously.” Tony said with a grin. “And it’ll be T’Challa, Rogers, and Barton. Anyone beyond that will be up to them.”

The corners of Pepper’s mouth turned down slightly. “Why Barton? I understand Rogers.”

“Barton because I’m sure you heard of his wife and children invading the tower the other day,” Tony started, pausing for Pepper’s confirmation.

She gave it to him with a nod.

“Turns out she wants me to present their divorce papers in return for our protection.” 

Rhodey tilted his head. “Protection from what?”

“Who knows?” Tony asked with a shrug. “What matters is that I agreed and I get to watch Barton’s reaction. So that’s why Barton’s coming.”

“What are your plans for Rogers?” Rhodey asked. “I know you have something.”

“I do,” Tony confirmed. “As Pepper knows, I met with some of the men in black we stole from SHIELD. They have been most kind to offer their services off the clock in exchange for payment.”

Rhodey’s brows shot straight up. “You what?!”

“I’m with him on this one.” Pepper cut in before Tony could say anything. “It’s meant to be a diplomatic meeting. There will be suspicions, obviously, but enough people - entire governments - wants Rogers taken care of it’s not completely out of place.”

“Colonel Rhodes,” FRIDAY suddenly chimed in. “If you don’t mind, I can bring up the records of the contingency plans JARVIS had created in the instance Boss made certain choices that support this course of action.”

Rhodey blinked.

“What?”

“FRIDAY,” Pepper said. “Did JARVIS make plans that don’t support this course of action?”

“Of course,” FRIDAY responded. “But fewer of them. Many don’t specify Rogers, but the intent of eliminating obstacles is consistent in almost all of them.”

Tony chuckled, mostly to himself.

“Almost all?” Rhodey asked, tone incredulous. 

“There are those where Boss accidentally found himself in the position of an antagonist toward SHIELD and other agencies or in a position of power over a great deal of society by accident.”

Rhodey let out a shaky breath. “Of course there are.”

Tony clapped his hands together. “So don’t you worry your shiny little head about it, it’s all going according to the master plan.”

Rhodey rested his chin on his hand, shaking his head. “I really need to stop being surprised.”

“Yes, you do.”

Pepper cleared her throat. “As reassuring as it is to have the odds in our favor -- and I’d like to emphasize how rare this is and how comforting it really is -- I have a few updates on the Stark industries front, if you’re interested.”

Tony turned to face her, or rather face the window behind her. “We’re very much interested.”

“In that case.” Pepper flicked the stylus and the Wakandan documents were replaced with Stark industries reports. “We have made progress.”

“How much?” Tony asked.

“The board meeting, which you did not attend-”

“-you can’t have actually expected me to do that.” Tony interrupted.

“At the board meeting,” Pepper continued. “The opening up of a new division was approved. Apparently they’ve been itching for it for a while.”

“Good,” Tony said, nodding.

Various CVs replaced the reports. “We’ve already begun recruiting with great success as Stark Industries has not been covered in NCAs for space-specific industries to this point. The few you see from SpaceX and Blue Origin are more for show than anything else, but they certainly have talent and experience.”

“You’re hoping for this to become public?” Rhodey asked, eyes wide. “I thought you’d want to keep it lowkey.”

“We want the entire operation to be lowkey,” Pepper said. “This will help us do that. Stark Industries expanding isn’t out of the norm, nor is the decision to go into private space exploration. But it will catch the attention of the news media. Furthermore, we can expect smear campaigns funded by what will be our competitors.”

“And then you’ll be working on the media angel?” Rhodey asked.

“Yes,” Tony answered. “At least that’s what should be happening.”

Contracts replaced the CVs. “We’re in negotiations with a couple companies now,” Pepper said.

Tony pressed his hand to his mouth. “Did the board approve?” 

She nodded. “Surprisingly yes,” Pepper answered. “Believe it or not, they have learned to trust our decisions at least a little bit. More than that, the promise of higher profits is enticing enough.”

“And that leads us to the next point,” Tony said. “The benefits packages and your pay cut. I’m hoping you also brought those up.”

Pepper’s face sharpened. “I did indeed.”

“And?”

“I explained it as being needed to steal talent from competitors and that it wouldn’t effect their returns,” she bit out. “They were also reassured when I told them the Stark Industries bill for our PR firm would be lowering in the near future since you’ll be hiring a different one for your private image.”

Tony nodded. “Good.”

\--

Rhodey’s braces were coming along, which was good. Great, even. The mechanics were, unsurprisingly, figured out. They were essentially just the frame of the suit without all the panelling. 

The problem was getting them to move. Rhodey’s legs couldn’t produce enough power. The suit could move on its own, but that was with a full body interface and Tony had a feeling Rhodey didn’t want to have to verbally tell his legs to move.

An AI was the answer, obviously. Figuring out how to engage the AI quickly and subtly was key Tony had yet to find.

He reached his hand out for the smoothie Butterfingers brought him and took a sip. Unsurprisingly, the whole technology connection had drastically improved the quality of his AI produced beverages.

_ “Thank you, Butterfingers.” _

The machine made a few happy chirps and spun around.  _ “Yes!!” _

Tony chuckled. He was even fonder of the AIs now than he had been, if that was possible.

He pulled up the schematics of the Spiderman suit with a huff as he leaned back. Spiderman. At least he hadn’t been the one to come up with the name Iron Man. But what more could you ask for from a kid?

Tony twirled his finger and watched the holograph rotate. There were already fifteen things he could see that needed to be improved. 

The kid had named the AI Karen for Christ’s sake.

The software fixes would be quick. He just needed to be near the suit and he’d be able to go through and update it in a minute or two. 

The real question was how near the suit he needed to be. He still hadn’t taken to meditating, but he had starting to take some time everyday and  _ push _ . Connecting to FRIDAY took less than a thought. Connecting a building or vehicle that didn’t have one of his AIs was also pretty instinctual.

But buildings were solid and were all connected. He’d always been able to hear the hum of electricity, and connecting to a building or passive piece of technology was more similar to that than anything else. A hum, a background stream of information Tony could purposefully tune in and out of.

But he needed to get better. Where was the line drawn? His own tech was a no-brainer. But how advanced did technology need to be? Anything connected to the internet or a satellite was easy, there were pathways already formed that he could jump into. Anything with a source of power was also pretty do-able, engines, battery packs, or just plugged into an outlet. There was a movement of electrons that drew him in like a flame.

FRIDAY wasn’t linked to the spider suit. But he’d made the suit and the AI. He had a backup of the software on his own servers. Theoretically, all it’d take was a hop, a skip, and a jump.

Tony closed his eyes and focused in on FRIDAY’s presence at the back of his mind. There were countless overrides, all of which allowed FRIDAY to take over the kid’s suit. 

...and the suit was put away. Damnit. 

The kid was in school right now, at least he was supposed to be. 

He called Happy.

The phone rang twice. Happy was reliable like that. 

“What can I do for you, Boss?”

Tony pulled the plans for Rhodey’s legs back up. “Pick up the kid tomorrow after school and bring him to the compound. Make sure he has his suit.”

He heard a muffled curse. “Really?” 

“Yes, really,” Tony bit back.

Happy sighed. “Will do.”

“Great,” Tony said. “Bye.” 

And that was the kid taken care of.

\---

He honestly had thought he was prepared for the kid. The endless stream of nonsense and hyperactivity were kind of unforgettable. 

But this was...this was something else.

“...oh wow, Mr. Stark.” It started off innocently enough. “This is so cool. I can’t believe I’m actually here, you know? Like I know you gave me the suit and I got to fight against Captain America, which was totally awesome. But this? This is something I’ve literally fantasized about. Not like that! But like, I’ve dreamed of working with you in your workshop? I mean, what nerd hasn’t, right? I know Ned is talking about getting a Stark computer for Christmas and is always talking about figuring out what makes it tick, not that you directly have any involvement with the consumer tech, at least I don’t think you do, but..”

It just kept going. Tony wasn’t sure the kid had taken a single breath since he entered the compound.

Happy had led him here with an ‘I told you so’ look directed at Tony and that was the last moment he’d known peace.

He raised a hand. “Kid,” he said. “I’m going to stop you right there.”

Peter’s mouth slammed shut.

Tony crossed his arms over his chest. “You brought the suit?”

Peter nodded.

He jerked his head toward the worktable. “Lay it out, we’re going to be making some upgrades.”

The kid turned his bag upside down and pulled the suit off the top of the pile.

Tony could feel his blood pressure rising.

Soon the suit was laid out and connected to the table. Tony flicked his finger upward for the kid’s sake and the suit schematics appeared over the suit. There seemed to be a couple cosmetic issues, but everything else was fine. The sort of thing he expected from a kid who willingly flung himself off of buildings, really.

Peter stuck his hand out and ran it through the projection. “That’s so cool, Mr. Stark!”

Tony nodded. He expanded the schematic, ignoring the kid’s commentary for the moment. The best way to repair the damage would be to fuse in new material to maintain the strength. He could show the kid how to do it and let him handle it. Meanwhile, he’d be able to handle the rest of it. 

_ “Hey FRIDAY, we still have the material for the suit?” _

_ “Yes.” _

Perfect. He held out his hand and waited for You to hand him the tool he needed.

“Mr. Stark,” Peter cut in. “Why are your eyes glowing blue?”

Well, shit.

Tony very purposefully did not look up at Peter. “My eyes aren’t glowing blue.”

“Mr. Stark-”

“-cut it with the Mr. Stark, underoos. It’s Tony.”

“Mr. Stark,” Peter repeated, as if Tony hadn’t said a thing. “I literally have supersight. Your eyes were glowing blue.”

Tony huffed. “Fine,” he admitted. “Fine. They were. Okay?”

Peter’s eyes widened to the size of what had to be golf balls. “Why?”

Tony turned back to the suit schematics and blew up the chest where the spider logo was. “Because,” he said. “It’s apparently a side-effect of making sure I didn’t die.”

“That your eyes glow blue?” Peter asked, looking like a lost puppy. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Tony shrugged. “It doesn’t need to make sense.” He accepted the tool from You that he’d called for earlier. “What makes even less sense is that I have a weird super power now.”

“Wait, oh my god, really?” Peter asked, nearly jumping in place. “Is it from the medical procedure? I know you were pretty beat before, but I don’t think blue eyes are a normal side-effect of any procedure. Not that I’m an expert on any sort of medicine, but I did a lot of research when I had my spider bite so I like to think I’m not clueless. You know, I kept trying to reach out to Happy but he never said anything and I was just trying to see if you were okay-”

“Please stop.”

Peter shook his head. “But if you have a new superpower, maybe I can help you! I do happen to know a thing or two about waking up with weird powers!”

The kid wasn’t exactly wrong about that.

Tony sighed. “I can connect to technology.”

“What?” 

Tony spun the soldering tool in his hand. “I woke up and was able to see the building’s AI and control the lights and everything in the building,” he said. “It’s basically like a computer inside of my head.”

“Like the microchip implants in sci-fi!”

Tony blinked. “Sure.”

It wasn’t really like that at all. Hell, he didn’t know how to describe it, nor did he know why he was telling this to the kid of all people.

“Parker,” he said, making sure his tone was stern. “You cannot, and I reiterate, cannot, tell anyone about this.”

The kid nodded so fast Tony was sure his head was going to fall off. “Of course, sir! No one will ever know, I promise!”

“Good.”

Peter bit his lip.

Tony narrowed his eyes.

“Mr. Stark,” Peter started. “Does this mean you can control the suits without actually needing to control them? Do they just like respond to what you need before you can even think you need it? What about google? Phone calls? When you call somebody is it just in your head? What about texting? This is so cool!”

“I could already control my suits.”

Peter nodded. “But this is different!” he said. “It’s like a part of you, right? Like your brains are synced, like in Pacific Rim!”

Tony didn’t know what that was. “Sure.”

“You know, Mr. Stark,” Peter said. “I thought the Winter Soldier was pretty cool because he’s like a cyborg, but this is even cooler.”

Tony dropped the soldering tool. 

The Winter Soldier was a cyborg. Or at least the closest thing there was. That arm surely had some sort of power source. 

And that meant Tony could control it. Probably.

Shit. 

And that? That changed everything.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this has been outlined for a while and in my head even longer. In terms of what I hope to accomplish in this story, it's a bit ambitious. It's also quite different from anything I've written before. I'm excited, and I kinda am in love with this fic as a concept. I hope you're all ready for a ride.
> 
> Feel free to come reach out to me at my tumblr @ashilrak


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